Yahoo Lifestyle Designer Adam Lippes Speaks About Creating First Lady Melania Trump’s Inaugural Look
Adam Lippes was on the way to the airport for a much-needed vacation in Japan when he got the call in mid-November asking if he’d design First Lady Melania Trump’s Inauguration Day look.
“I’m getting out of the car, and I see there’s a bunch of calls from a number I don’t know. And then I have an email from [her stylist] Hervé Pierre saying SOS, please call me, and this is the number to reach me on,” said Lippes, speaking for the first time about the historic Jan. 20 fashion moment.
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“It took a little back and forth, and I got a hold of him as I was getting on the plane.…He said ‘We’ve been discussing the inauguration and Mrs. Trump was wondering if you would consider making her day look,'” Lippes recalled. “And, of course, without hesitation, I said yes.”
Over the last 11 years, Lippes has built his quiet luxury business on the concept of timeless sportswear and occasion wear in exquisite fabrications, with investment from the Houston-based Sarofim family, and their fund-management empire. Extremely client-focused, he spent the first decade of his label traveling more days that not, growing the brand through trunk shows and charity lunches with a particular focus on the South, and opening stores last year in Palm Beach, Fla. and Houston, following two in New York.
He and Pierre knew each other from their days at Oscar de la Renta, where Pierre worked as a designer from 1995 to 1998, and Lippes joined as creative director in 1996. It was actually Lippes’ eight-year tenure with de la Renta that instilled in him the tradition of dressing first ladies, he said.
“There was no greater honor than to dress a first lady, whether for the inauguration or on down. Oscar is widely credited as styling Mrs. Clinton, but it was Mrs. Bush before that. And Oscar was actually friendly with both.…So I’ve always had a far-reaching respect for the first family that was certainly instilled in me from Oscar. ‘We dress who’s in power’ was I think maybe what he used to say. ‘That’s my job,’ said Lippes, who considers dressing a first lady to be above politics. “In the ability to showcase what we can do, there’s no greater stage.”
Lippes has dressed first ladies in the democratic party as well, including Dr. Jill Biden and Michelle Obama before her. Trump had also worn his clothing before, shopping for it herself.
But this was the first time the New York designer had made a custom look for her. He did not submit sketches. “It was pretty clear what she wanted,” Lippes said, explaining that Pierre said they were drawn to his tailoring and wanted a long, tailored coat.
Lippes used his made-in-Italy double-face silk wool, pushing up the weight for Trump because she wanted it “very, very structured.” She wanted the sharp coat to be dark navy but not black, and they went back and forth on the color a few times to get it right. “It was great to have Hervé in the middle of that, because he is a couturier — he really is,” he said of Pierre, who spent years designing haute couture for Pierre Balmain both before and after de la Renta became head designer there, and has designed many looks himself for Trump, including the inaugural ballgown. “He was able to help define in our fashion terminology, what it is and what was.”
The commission was not without some drama. “Usually, it’s three or four months for fabric.…So this was really a very big rush job with the colors and the dying, and Christmas was in the middle of it all,” said Lippes of working with his mill in Italy. “Then there was an issue at the factory with the color, so it was one of these high stress sort of things.”
Lippes fit Trump at her home in New York several times, made a dress form and hired a fit model to her specifications to ensure everything was perfect on the high-waist pencil skirt in matching navy, and the ivory silk crepe blouse with neck inspired by a tied foulard.
“We had two incredible pattern makers working on it, one for the suiting, which was the coat and the pencil skirt…and then another one who does all of our dresses for the blouse underneath,” he said of the workmanship by artisans with decades of experience. The pieces were made in his atelier in downtown New York, with the exception of the sewing on the coat, which was completed out of house. “This was all constructed in a very, very classic way. I would say, all in all, about nine or 10 people worked on this from fabric on down.”
Although Lippes’ fabric was also used on Trump’s wide-brimmed Eric Javits hat, he did not see the hat with the look until the final fitting, he said. His team hand-delivered everything to Washington, D.C. at 11 a.m. the Friday before and there were no alterations needed. “It was perfect,” Lippes said, adding that they actually made a duplicate in case it got lost.
On Inauguration Day, Lippes and his team watched the ceremony together at his office. “So I was with the team when we caught the first glimpse of her going into the church,” he said, adding that from a fashion perspective, she projected “elegance and strength.”
The response for the brand has been “overwhelmingly positive,” he said. “And, of course, because of the tensions, I was a bit worried…I had seen and looked at Instagrams of what some people had been wearing for the weekend, and there was a lot of negativity. But there really wasn’t for us, even from my friends, or some people we work with who are definitely not from that political side. It really felt good. She really represented what a first lady should look like.” (De la Renta’s own label had several moments in the spotlight during the festivities, too, including dressing second lady Usha Vance.)
Lippes’ brand Instagram account had more than 2 million visitors in the hours after the inauguration, and his following grew 30 percent to 140,000. The web store had the single best week of sales in the company’s history following the inauguration, and there is a waiting list for similar coats, said Lippes, who will not, however, be producing a recreation of the custom look.
He’s also seen a sales bump at his stores. “There have been a lot of new customers and people placing orders and commenting about how happy they are to find a new, independent designer,” he said.
“Business going into this was really quite strong, but things like this certainly help,” said Lippes, whose brand notched a 30 percent increase in sales last year.
While he hasn’t heard directly from Trump yet, Pierre relayed that she was over the moon.
Not all of the reactions were so kind, with the online memeverse comparing Trump’s coat and hat ensemble to the Hamburglar, Carmen Sandiego and Jim Carrey in “The Mask,” among others. “I only saw a few, but a couple I found quite funny,” said Lippes, good-naturedly.
On the brand’s Instagram, some of the comments turned political.
“Yes, there were some angry people, some hateful people, and I did not engage with that,” said Lippes. “I was even thinking, if this is really going to be a s–t show, I’m going to turn off our comments. And it wasn’t at all. I was really very proud that as an independent designer I was chosen for this stage, but not everything anyone does can always be met with a positive reaction. When I dressed Dr. Biden, I would also get hateful messages.”
Lippes is excited to follow the inaugural look’s journey to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s First Ladies collection, where it will live for posterity. “We had a wall up of first lady outfits all the way back to Mrs. Washington while we were working on this because we wanted to make sure we weren’t derivative of anything. It’s incredible to see how they’ve changed.”
While he doesn’t have any immediate plans to do so, he said he’d be honored to dress Trump again. “Both with Dr. Biden and Mrs. Trump, when they wore our pieces we did see a business effect. I believe there can hardly be any greater cheerleader for American fashion than the first lady.”
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